This salad has a few distinct flavours, which combine extremely well: bacon, goats milk cheese and butternut. You can substitute the butternut with pumpkin.
In an oven-proof dish, roast one medium butternut (peeled and cut into chunks) with olive oil, crushed salt flakes, a couple of rosemary stalks, some powdered cumin and coriander spice. You will need to roast the butternut for about 40 minutes, until it is soft enough to poke easily with a fork and the edges have started to brown and crisp.
Then, cut 4 slices of smoked back bacon into smallish pieces, and grill the pieces in the oven until they are nice and crispy. You could also fry these, if you prefer.
Arrange your salad with a base of assorted chopped salad leaves, crumbled soft goats milk cheese, assorted toasted seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flaxseed and sesame seeds) and a few cherry tomato halves. To this, add the roast butternut and crispy bacon.
Dress with the following:
Juice of one fresh lemon, 50ml good olive oil, salt and pepper and a generous teaspoon of whole grain mustard. Whiz the dressing with a hand blender, if you have one, as it emulsified the lemon juice and olive oil.
